EvilSeph
Administrator
In our New Years 2009 article we promised changes and improvements. To prove that we're one to keep our promises, here they are. Judging by your response to some of the recent changes, we think you'll be pleased with the rest of the changes we have for you guys that you may or may not have already noticed.
[FIELDSET=Cool Looking Rank Images And Further Modernizing]
One of the comments you guys made regarding what attracts you to us is that we seem more modern than other communities. Taking this to heart, we've decided to modernize most of our content and images starting with doing away with the boring old text ranks and replacing them with cool looking images made by our very own NeilR:
Most of you have already noticed these images and we can see you already like them
but this left us with redundant textual ranks that really didn't look too good when put next to the new rank images…so we decided to take full advantage of the usertitles by offering you guys the option to customize and personalise it however you see fit - provided it is civil and falls within our rules and guidelines, etc. etc.
To change your usertitle, go to your UserCP, "Edit Your Details" and look for "Custom User Title" as shown below:
If you would like a blank usertitle, feel free to contact one of the Administrators and we'll take care of that for you.
Here are the new rank images along with the number of posts needed to have them (if applicable):
Rating Pending - 0
Everyone - 10
Teen - 100
Mature - 500
Adults Only - 1000
Restricted - 5000
Along with these new rank images, we're really taking the modernizing of the forums seriously. We've replaced the old poll bars with some nicer ones, the post editor icons and post icons with better, more modern looking ones (thanks to FAMFAMFAM), replaced the old, boring emoticons with more modern looking ones (thanks to Chathurga for making them look good on both mfm_light and mfm_dark!) and hope to keep at it
[/FIELDSET]
[FIELDSET=Donations]
Right when we opened our doors some of you guys had an important question in mind: are we going to accept donations? And the general response to that question was that we were looking into it. We weren't giving you a general, brush-off, response on purpose - we just wanted to make sure that we weren't going to be giving you false hope by hinting that we would be and then having to go back on our word.
Well, we can finally be straight with you and tell you guys that we're going to be giving you what you want - the ability to donate to your favourite community. We're incredibly grateful and were really happy to hear that so many people were expressing interest in donating to keep us going. Thanks guys! It really means a lot to us and motivates us to try even harder to be the best.
Based on feedback received from those interested in donating, we've decided to provide you with some small tokens of our appreciation once you've been confirmed to be a donator. One of those tokens is a star attached to the normal rank images and another token that I'll describe a bit later in this announcement.
Though I am sure it need not be said, let's be serious and official for a sec:
All donations made will be used solely towards the upkeep associated with this site. Funds received will be used for the server costs and all donations will be reinvested into M for Mature.
Also goes without saying: THANKS to anyone who donates to us, we really appreciate it!
Last, but definitely not least (at least in this section), I'd like to send out my most sincerest and whole hearted thanks to Hellcat, Chathurga and x3sphere for staying up with me to get the donation system working like it should. It doesn't matter if I have to be up early tomorrow - I would not be able to sleep if I were to leave this problem unsolved. Thankfully, I had help in the matter through Chathurga and Hellcat donating to test the system as well as giving me PHP advice (and talking to me like I didn't know what I was doing) along with x3sphere.
Thanks guys, I really appreciate it.
Note - Please allow up to a few hours before the donation badge change takes place.
[/FIELDSET]
[FIELDSET=Top Stats]
I don't know about you guys, but I really found the Top Stats useful since we first added it back when we performed some major maintenance and a complete overhaul of our forums and website. I've never been one to use the "new posts" feature on a forum - and now I don't have to.
We've replaced the old, cramped Top Stats feature with a new AJAX powered one. That's right, AJAX powered. Say goodbye for the need to click on the New Posts link up in the navbar anymore because the New Posts at the bottom of the forum index auto-refreshes every 120 seconds. What's more cool is that you can manually refresh it if you really wish to.
If you're wondering where all the other stats went, all you have to do is click on the ▼ next to either the "Top Posters" or "Latest Forum News" sections and choose which stats you'd like to view.
Along with this new Top Stats, comes some small new features that you might find useful: in the "New Posts" section, if you click on the title of a thread, it will direct you to that specific thread. If you click on the ► next to the poster's name, you'll be directed to the last post in the associated thread. Lastly, if you click on the ▼ next to the post's time and date, you'll be directed to the first unread post in that thread.
As always, if you don't want to see it at all, you can just click on the ▼ next to "Top Stats" at the top of the feature and choose "Turn off Top Stats" to disable it.
[/FIELDSET]
[FIELDSET=Signatures Shown Only Once]
If you're like me and you generally find large, noisy signatures to be annoying but like the concept of signatures, we've added something you may be interested in. While it may not be as effective as say hiding all the signatures in a collapsible container…we feel that it is a worthy alternative.
By turning this new feature on each signature on a page will only be shown once. So, if one person posts a few times within that one page, you'll only see their signature once. This way, big, noisy signatures are bearable and don't get in the way of your community experience.
If you guys like this feature, you have Moca to thank for bothering me about it and asking me to come up with a solution so that he isn't as bothered by the largely annoying signatures some people may have. And for those of you, like Hellcat, who are concerned with having things forced on them - I think you'll be happy to know that, as with everything, we try our best to give you guys the option of using our new features or not
To set this up, simply go to the "Edit Options" screen in your UserCP, look for the "
Signatures Only Shown Once" option (as shown in the screenshot below)
and set it to yes if you want signatures to be only shown once or no if you'd rather have them shown for each post like we used to have it.
[/FIELDSET]
[FIELDSET=Revamped Comments System On The Front Page]
Originally we were going to integrate our forums with our front-page but, unfortunately, due to technical limitations we can't do that anymore. Still, I personally feel that the system we have come up with is better since it allows guests to participate in commenting too.
Now, if the mention of guest commenting made you sigh out loud, I have some good news for you: with our new system, we've made it easier to notice what comment was made by what kind of person (Admin, Staff, Contributor, Donator, MfM member or a guest). This comment marking system enables anyone to tell, at a glance, who made the comment which allows us to easily prevent the impersonation problem that plagues some of the other sites out there that offer open-commenting.
That being said, once registration is opened, it will occur on a first come first served basis - so make sure to register your nickname quickly so that we know it is actually you when a comment is made under your name
Along with our marking system, we've given you guys the power to moderate the comments through the use of a comments voting system - much like the one you see on YouTube and other sites like it. If a comment receives a score below a certain threshold, it will be hidden from view.
Several other improvements are the ability to reply directly to someone's comment, the ability to edit your own comments for a short amount of time after you post one, a live comment preview and the ability to subscribe to comments so that you can be notified through email about new comments made to a post you're interested in.
Here's an example of a direct reply I posted to Clinteger's comment:
Lastly, although this isn't exactly related to the comments system, we've made it easier to find what you're looking for by adding a "Related posts" section at the bottom of the article you're viewing (if you are viewing it directly and not from the front page or an archives page).
Here's an explanation and example of the different kinds of markings you'll come across in our new system:
A comment made by a guest user (someone who is either not registered on our front page or not logged in) will look something like this:
A comment made by an MfM member (a regular who is registered on our front page and logged in when they made the comment) will be highlighted with a blue-ish gradient like shown below:
A comment made by a Donator will look similar to that of an MfM member, but they'll have the added Exclusive Donator's star badge too, as shown below:
Whenever one of our valued Contributors leaves a comment on an article, their comment will be enclosed in a green gradient and they will have their own Contributor badge attached to their comments too:
If a Staff Member makes a comment on the front page, their comment will be surrounded by an orange gradient and a Super Moderator badge, like the one seen below:
Lastly, if a comment is made by an Administrator then the comment will be highlighted in red with an accompanying Administrator badge attached:
[/FIELDSET]
[FIELDSET=Miscellaneous]
Here at M for Mature, we pride ourselves on the way we value community feedback. Usually if there is an issue you have or a bug you notice, if you let us know, it is fixed as soon as we possibly can.
That being said, here are some of highlights of some recent bugs we've fixed in case you didn't notice:
For the IRC fanatics in our community, we've added a [noparse]/me command[/noparse] coded by our very own Hellcat that allows you to easily describe yourself doing an action (much like the [noparse]/me command on IRC[/noparse])
As I'm sure you've all noticed Vanden pointing out over the past few weeks, our old anti-double posts plugin was bugged as it would double the post contents when auto-editing your previous post. Thankfully, we've fixed this problem so Vanden can rest easily tonight. Thanks for letting us know Vanden!
I can't remember who pointed this one out specifically, but we've fixed the automated tagging of (no prefix) problem so you'll no longer see (no prefix) as a tag on any posts. Though, personally, I think it would have been useful to have - just click on the (no prefix) tag and you can see all the posts that have not been giving a prefix.
/me shrugs.
Lastly, I know some of you have noticed that we recently cleaned up our navbar because it was really getting too crowded. Any missing items can now be found within the Quick Links section and we've kept all the items that we can identify with and/or that you guys have expressed concern about keeping. Furthermore, thanks once again to Vanden, we've moved the New Posts link to a more universal and familiar position so you guys don't end up joining our IRC channel by mistake anymore[/FIELDSET]
Thanks for sticking with us and providing all the feedback that you have. It is thanks to you that we've come this far and will continue improving for the better.
If there is anything else we can do to make your stay within our community more worthwhile or better in any way, please do not hesitate to let us know!
[FIELDSET=Cool Looking Rank Images And Further Modernizing]
One of the comments you guys made regarding what attracts you to us is that we seem more modern than other communities. Taking this to heart, we've decided to modernize most of our content and images starting with doing away with the boring old text ranks and replacing them with cool looking images made by our very own NeilR:
Most of you have already noticed these images and we can see you already like them
but this left us with redundant textual ranks that really didn't look too good when put next to the new rank images…so we decided to take full advantage of the usertitles by offering you guys the option to customize and personalise it however you see fit - provided it is civil and falls within our rules and guidelines, etc. etc. To change your usertitle, go to your UserCP, "Edit Your Details" and look for "Custom User Title" as shown below:
If you would like a blank usertitle, feel free to contact one of the Administrators and we'll take care of that for you.
Here are the new rank images along with the number of posts needed to have them (if applicable):
Rating Pending - 0
Everyone - 10
Teen - 100
Mature - 500
Adults Only - 1000
Restricted - 5000
Along with these new rank images, we're really taking the modernizing of the forums seriously. We've replaced the old poll bars with some nicer ones, the post editor icons and post icons with better, more modern looking ones (thanks to FAMFAMFAM), replaced the old, boring emoticons with more modern looking ones (thanks to Chathurga for making them look good on both mfm_light and mfm_dark!) and hope to keep at it
[/FIELDSET]
[FIELDSET=Donations]
Right when we opened our doors some of you guys had an important question in mind: are we going to accept donations? And the general response to that question was that we were looking into it. We weren't giving you a general, brush-off, response on purpose - we just wanted to make sure that we weren't going to be giving you false hope by hinting that we would be and then having to go back on our word.
Well, we can finally be straight with you and tell you guys that we're going to be giving you what you want - the ability to donate to your favourite community. We're incredibly grateful and were really happy to hear that so many people were expressing interest in donating to keep us going. Thanks guys! It really means a lot to us and motivates us to try even harder to be the best.
Based on feedback received from those interested in donating, we've decided to provide you with some small tokens of our appreciation once you've been confirmed to be a donator. One of those tokens is a star attached to the normal rank images and another token that I'll describe a bit later in this announcement.
Though I am sure it need not be said, let's be serious and official for a sec:
All donations made will be used solely towards the upkeep associated with this site. Funds received will be used for the server costs and all donations will be reinvested into M for Mature.
Also goes without saying: THANKS to anyone who donates to us, we really appreciate it!
Last, but definitely not least (at least in this section), I'd like to send out my most sincerest and whole hearted thanks to Hellcat, Chathurga and x3sphere for staying up with me to get the donation system working like it should. It doesn't matter if I have to be up early tomorrow - I would not be able to sleep if I were to leave this problem unsolved. Thankfully, I had help in the matter through Chathurga and Hellcat donating to test the system as well as giving me PHP advice (and talking to me like I didn't know what I was doing
) along with x3sphere.Thanks guys, I really appreciate it.
Note - Please allow up to a few hours before the donation badge change takes place.
[/FIELDSET]
[FIELDSET=Top Stats]
I don't know about you guys, but I really found the Top Stats useful since we first added it back when we performed some major maintenance and a complete overhaul of our forums and website. I've never been one to use the "new posts" feature on a forum - and now I don't have to.
We've replaced the old, cramped Top Stats feature with a new AJAX powered one. That's right, AJAX powered. Say goodbye for the need to click on the New Posts link up in the navbar anymore because the New Posts at the bottom of the forum index auto-refreshes every 120 seconds. What's more cool is that you can manually refresh it if you really wish to.
If you're wondering where all the other stats went, all you have to do is click on the ▼ next to either the "Top Posters" or "Latest Forum News" sections and choose which stats you'd like to view.
Along with this new Top Stats, comes some small new features that you might find useful: in the "New Posts" section, if you click on the title of a thread, it will direct you to that specific thread. If you click on the ► next to the poster's name, you'll be directed to the last post in the associated thread. Lastly, if you click on the ▼ next to the post's time and date, you'll be directed to the first unread post in that thread.
As always, if you don't want to see it at all, you can just click on the ▼ next to "Top Stats" at the top of the feature and choose "Turn off Top Stats" to disable it.
[/FIELDSET]
[FIELDSET=Signatures Shown Only Once]
If you're like me and you generally find large, noisy signatures to be annoying but like the concept of signatures, we've added something you may be interested in. While it may not be as effective as say hiding all the signatures in a collapsible container…we feel that it is a worthy alternative.
By turning this new feature on each signature on a page will only be shown once. So, if one person posts a few times within that one page, you'll only see their signature once. This way, big, noisy signatures are bearable and don't get in the way of your community experience.
If you guys like this feature, you have Moca to thank for bothering me about it and asking me to come up with a solution so that he isn't as bothered by the largely annoying signatures some people may have
. And for those of you, like Hellcat, who are concerned with having things forced on them - I think you'll be happy to know that, as with everything, we try our best to give you guys the option of using our new features or not To set this up, simply go to the "Edit Options" screen in your UserCP, look for the "
Signatures Only Shown Once" option (as shown in the screenshot below)
and set it to yes if you want signatures to be only shown once or no if you'd rather have them shown for each post like we used to have it.
[/FIELDSET]
[FIELDSET=Revamped Comments System On The Front Page]
Originally we were going to integrate our forums with our front-page but, unfortunately, due to technical limitations we can't do that anymore. Still, I personally feel that the system we have come up with is better since it allows guests to participate in commenting too.
Now, if the mention of guest commenting made you sigh out loud, I have some good news for you: with our new system, we've made it easier to notice what comment was made by what kind of person (Admin, Staff, Contributor, Donator, MfM member or a guest). This comment marking system enables anyone to tell, at a glance, who made the comment which allows us to easily prevent the impersonation problem that plagues some of the other sites out there that offer open-commenting.
That being said, once registration is opened, it will occur on a first come first served basis - so make sure to register your nickname quickly so that we know it is actually you when a comment is made under your name
Along with our marking system, we've given you guys the power to moderate the comments through the use of a comments voting system - much like the one you see on YouTube and other sites like it. If a comment receives a score below a certain threshold, it will be hidden from view.
Several other improvements are the ability to reply directly to someone's comment, the ability to edit your own comments for a short amount of time after you post one, a live comment preview and the ability to subscribe to comments so that you can be notified through email about new comments made to a post you're interested in.
Here's an example of a direct reply I posted to Clinteger's comment:
Lastly, although this isn't exactly related to the comments system, we've made it easier to find what you're looking for by adding a "Related posts" section at the bottom of the article you're viewing (if you are viewing it directly and not from the front page or an archives page).
Here's an explanation and example of the different kinds of markings you'll come across in our new system:
A comment made by a guest user (someone who is either not registered on our front page or not logged in) will look something like this:
A comment made by an MfM member (a regular who is registered on our front page and logged in when they made the comment) will be highlighted with a blue-ish gradient like shown below:
A comment made by a Donator will look similar to that of an MfM member, but they'll have the added Exclusive Donator's star badge too, as shown below:
Whenever one of our valued Contributors leaves a comment on an article, their comment will be enclosed in a green gradient and they will have their own Contributor badge attached to their comments too:
If a Staff Member makes a comment on the front page, their comment will be surrounded by an orange gradient and a Super Moderator badge, like the one seen below:
Lastly, if a comment is made by an Administrator then the comment will be highlighted in red with an accompanying Administrator badge attached:
[/FIELDSET]
[FIELDSET=Miscellaneous]
Here at M for Mature, we pride ourselves on the way we value community feedback. Usually if there is an issue you have or a bug you notice, if you let us know, it is fixed as soon as we possibly can.
That being said, here are some of highlights of some recent bugs we've fixed in case you didn't notice:
For the IRC fanatics in our community, we've added a [noparse]/me command[/noparse] coded by our very own Hellcat that allows you to easily describe yourself doing an action (much like the [noparse]/me command on IRC[/noparse])
As I'm sure you've all noticed Vanden pointing out over the past few weeks, our old anti-double posts plugin was bugged as it would double the post contents when auto-editing your previous post. Thankfully, we've fixed this problem so Vanden can rest easily tonight. Thanks for letting us know Vanden!
I can't remember who pointed this one out specifically, but we've fixed the automated tagging of (no prefix) problem so you'll no longer see (no prefix) as a tag on any posts. Though, personally, I think it would have been useful to have - just click on the (no prefix) tag and you can see all the posts that have not been giving a prefix.
/me shrugs.
Lastly, I know some of you have noticed that we recently cleaned up our navbar because it was really getting too crowded. Any missing items can now be found within the Quick Links section and we've kept all the items that we can identify with and/or that you guys have expressed concern about keeping. Furthermore, thanks once again to Vanden, we've moved the New Posts link to a more universal and familiar position so you guys don't end up joining our IRC channel by mistake anymore
[/FIELDSET]Thanks for sticking with us and providing all the feedback that you have. It is thanks to you that we've come this far and will continue improving for the better.
If there is anything else we can do to make your stay within our community more worthwhile or better in any way, please do not hesitate to let us know!
